Ice Post
My last post offered a break from all the wildlife and covered some beautiful lenticular clouds and landscapes over Half Moon Island instead. This post also offers a break from wildlife to cover a zodiac ride through the pack ice in the Bransfield Strait, with lots of photogenic icebergs.
Pack Ice in the Bransfield Strait
After leaving Half Moon Island, the ship set sail for Elephant Island. It was quite a distance to get to the island, so we wouldn’t arrive until the next morning. Along the way, however, we encountered a large section of pack ice, so we stopped for a zodiac cruise through the pack ice.
While the crew prepared the zodiacs, the ship was stopped. One one side of the ship were floating chunks of ice, while on the other side was clear ocean water with small ripples. I decided to have a little fun and photograph the two sides in these two somewhat abstract photos.
Icebergs
We boarded the zodiacs and headed in among the icebergs. Although the pack ice was rather thick, there were paths we could take to move between icebergs as long as the drivers were careful. An iceberg with icicles hanging down from an overhanging chunk of ice came into view. It was really quite mesmerizing.
The waters in the pack ice were quite still so there were often nice reflections. Besides the usual blues of the icebergs, I often see some pretty greens as well. I have read this can be due to yellowish organic matter in the iceberg combining with the blue iceberg to make green. It can also be due to minerals, especially iron-rich minerals, in the ice. But whatever the reason, the color combination is very nice.
Several icebergs had melted through the middle to form holes. Melting ice would create icicles hanging down from above the holes creating some eerie structures.
Another rather large iceberg had formed a long shelf above the water with icicles hanging down from the shelf. Drops of water were continually dripping down from the icicles fairly rapidly. Remember, January was the austral summer in Antarctica, meaning this melting is perfectly natural. And it sure looks cool.
Penguins
Finally, what would a post about Antarctica be without penguins? Some were hanging out on icebergs, such as this Adélie penguin.
Other penguins were swimming among the ice like this Chinstrap penguin. Must be freezing in there. But they are adapted to cold and have no problem.
Onward to Elephant Island
After a few hours we left the pack ice. Through the night, we would continue sailing to Elephant Island where an amazing story of survival occurred in the early 1900’s. Stay tuned for my next blog post to learn about it.
For now, I will leave you with a chance encounter with another ship, a chilean fishing trawler, in the evening as we headed to Elephant Island.
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